The globe has to treble the crop production rates in order to improve food security for future generations. However, crop production would likely become more challenging in the future since current crop types and crop development techniques might not be strong enough to withstand the rising abiotic pressures brought on by climate change. The primary cause of crop loss worldwide is abiotic stress, which reduces average yields for the majority of agricultural crops i.e., by more than 50%. The main environmental stresses that reduce crop production and productivity are drought, salinity, extreme temperatures, and cold. Crop improvement is the key element for the sustainable food production and modern crop improvement methods are very proficient that achieve remarkable improvements in plant performance against abiotic stress. One of the most important modern crop improvement method is genome editing. The advent of genome editing has generated a lot of excitement, especially among agricultural scientists, because it offers new chances to create improved crop varieties with the precise addition of beneficial traits. Genome editing is like mutational breeding; through this method, that is possible to create targeted genome modification and also possible to improve crop varieties with enhanced abiotic stress resistance. This review briefly discusses abiotic stress, genome editing, mechanisms, different types and applications in crop improvement against abiotic resistance.
CRISPR/Cas9, crop improvement, abiotic stress, tolerance, genome editing, rice
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